Intel's competitive advantage was, for many years, their superior process -- always far ahead of the competition. For reasons that aren't clear to me (still an Intel investor), Intel's process advantage has stumbled.
I informally interviewed with Intel's process engineering in the early 2010s and was amazed to grok that they truly viewed Moore's law as a target. The job looked extremely stressful, as a new miracle was required roughly every eighteen months, and every piece of the process had to work, or the whole line would fail. Intel's (and modern chip-building in general) fabrication work is truly astounding.
Intel's real competition is Nature, and Nature gets exponentially more difficult.
I informally interviewed with Intel's process engineering in the early 2010s and was amazed to grok that they truly viewed Moore's law as a target. The job looked extremely stressful, as a new miracle was required roughly every eighteen months, and every piece of the process had to work, or the whole line would fail. Intel's (and modern chip-building in general) fabrication work is truly astounding.
Intel's real competition is Nature, and Nature gets exponentially more difficult.